Superhero
by HalberdKnight
Summary: A story about a Dark Brotherhood Assassin that gets a contract to take out a Nightingale.
1. Meet the superhero

There was an odd cloaked visitor came to Riften in the middle of the night. It only took a few coins and a few smooth words to convince the guards at the gate to let her in, and offer her shelter. After all, most the Riften guards knew the kind matron Senra often travelled the dirt paths to Riften to frequent the Honorhall orphanage, volunteering to look after the children out of the charitable goodness of her heart. The kids would always cheer whenever she would arrive.

"You're really back!" The orphans stared at her with awe and fear. It was amazing whenever they would perform the Black Sacrament, the prayers would be answered.

"Hurry up." Senra replied flatly, regarding them with sharp glowing eyes from her hooded black cloak. She didn't want to be seen here at 1 AM when the real matron of the orphanage would come back from her walk.

Runa smiled, the only orphan not afraid of the poisonous and sickening aura that was emitted from the shadowy figure. "Sister, it's one of the thieves here. I think they might be from the guild. They steal from us and we have so little! You must make them pay with their blood." Runa looked up hopefully at the tall assassin, trying to discern her reaction when she handed over the paper contract with the thief's name. The old worn black cloak and dull faded and nondescript appearance was in stark contrast to when they first met.

That fated night, the Dark Brotherhood assassin arrived in a full set of ceremonial Shrouded Armor. With the splashes of red that draped her body, the blood and leather that clung to her frame, she was proud and unshakable. The outfit was revealing yet no part of her was vulnerable. Runa was staring at the assassin's back. It didn't matter that the long cape was tattered and black. Not when the assassin stood in a protective stance in front of the children, and quickly removed their abuser from this plane, severing their head with a ghostly blade. Her long red hair fell down her strong shoulders and arms, to her waist, contrasting the striking symbol of the Black Hand.

According to all the children in the Honorhall Orphanage, Riften had a real live superhero. Runa only wish she could see this hit being carried out, and the thief brought to justice, watching Senra pocket the note and start to walk away. Not wanting to see her hero and role model leave with such a defeated and uncertain way, Runa spoke up.

"I don't feel like an orphan, with a Mother watching over me." She said cheerily.

"Is that so?"The assassin put her hand down on the little girl's head, with a slight grin. "Praise Sithis." Senra whispered, and started to laugh in amusement as she walked into the dark night.


	2. Meet the supervillian

A large flock of black birds flew into the cloudy Bravil sky. On a bench, a masked figure sat down, one of the forgotten that wore the cowl of nocturnal, known only as Grey Fox. With the cowl, the very existence of Grey Fox was deleted from the universe. _Forgotten one, do you wish to lift the curse upon you?_ Grey Fox looked around quietly, and then nodded mutely. It was the middle of town, and no one else could hear the strange voice.

There was one problem. The only thing that could lift the curse was an Elder Scroll, and Grey Fox knew it. That was what happened with the previous Grey Fox all those years ago. However, since the artifact was transferred, the curse began anew to provide endless entertainment for the Deadric prince Nocturnal.

_A mortal has stolen the Skeleton Key from the Ebonmere._

Grey Fox's jaw dropped at that news. "R- Really?" The thief stammered, looking around. Imperial guards passed by raising eyebrows at the stranger that was freaking out talking to a rather innocent looking statute.

Grey Fox ducked down quickly, holding a hand over a cowled face. That wasn't too weird to Grey Fox, as legends had it that Prince Nocturnal often appeared in innocuous form of a fair maiden.

"What do I do?" Grey fox was bright eyed and eager to finally get their reputation back. In Grey Fox's past life, they were a Battlemage, the so-called Hero of K'vatch which had fallen to this fate. Suddenly the guards were all congregating, realizing where they had seen that crazy person before.

"Wait a minute! It's the master thief Grey Fox!"

Grey fox raised their hand, casting invisibility before vanishing into the shadows, jumping up to the wooden rails of the abandoned buildings.

_Bring it back. I will reward you by lifting your curse._

* * *

A bright light fell down from the open air grate into the dark sewers of the ragged flagon cistern. The battlemage wore little else than the old, ill-fitting dark grey cowl which hung loose over their face, and torn, messy clothing making them look out of place with the wealthy and prosperous thieves guild members.

"What are you doing here?" Karliah put a hand on her hip, looking down at the over-the-top leader coldly. This fool was just a figure head and in no way important to the inner workings of the thieves guild. She assumed he had arrived from Cyrodil to demand a cut of their profits, despite doing little to nothing in terms of acquiring it.

"Remember," Karliah took out her dagger, putting it to Grey Fox's neck. The cowled man started to panic in fear."You filthy imperial swit. I am the true leader of this guild."

"Ah- yes." Grey fox stammered. Such unneeded violence against others. What has the guild become?

"Tell me, Karliah." There was a curious tone from behind the cowl. "When was the last time you heard word from our Lady of Shadows?"

It had been so long since the Nightingales had heard word from Nocturnal. And the smug way that Grey fox spoke implied that this miserable imperial, a dishonorable coward that cared only for profit, was blessed in ways the Nightingales' were not. The wrong button was pushed for Karliah. All of the effort to bring the spirit of Gallus to peace, to protect the skeleton key had all amounted to nothing.

"Please hear me out. She's not happy," Grey fox tried to bluff, sidestepping further away from the lunging knife. "The key's missing from the Ebonmere."

The Dunmer started to curse in her own language and rushed to attack the thief, having to be held back by Brynjolf. "Calm down, lass. I want to kill this idiot as badly as you. Surely you have a better reason for coming here other from telling us something we already know?"

Grey fox seemed visibly panicked at this, so decided to convey the genius details of the thief's guild's greatest heist very quickly.

"Come again!?" Brynjolf growled, very much disliking the presence of their cowardly imperial guild leader.

"This fool that once dared to steal from Lady Nocturnal wishes to become a Nightingale!?" Karliah looked from Brynjolf to Grey fox incredulously. "Never!"

* * *

In the Ebonmere, a very dark cave that linked to the plane of Oblivion. Strangely, Karliah would have expected more fear from the imperial coward, but the Grey Fox seemed unsurprised to find the plane here. Perhaps there was some truth that Grey Fox was already well allied with Nocturnal, as strange as it was.

**Do you have another offering, Karliah?**

"Yes my lady." She said in disgust as grey fox bowed.

"Remember me?" Grey Fox stepped up eagerly to the black entity that appeared in a shadowy maiden form, although running back when countless black birds have flown out of the portal. "It was back in -"

**Unfortunately**. Nocturnal interrupted in disgust. She was in a human-like form, a woman dressed in black, and visible to everyone, unlike in Bravil.

"He has successfully made the pilgrimage and wishes to swear the oath. His reasons are -"

**I know well HIS reasons, Karliah.** The hissing voice gave a mocking and sadistic laugh, and Grey Fox winced. Karliah was about to protest, but the words died in her throat as the Deadric Prince's voice turned from mocking to angry.

**You fail to realize you will need all the help you can get. Perhaps this is truly fate that brought the legendary thief to this place. I seem to remember allowing you only one chance. You failed me twice now, Karliah. Yet, fear not. I am merciful. I will let you leave the Evergloam alive in return for managing to find this sacrifice. **

Grey fox's eyes narrowed in confusion, something wasn't adding up about this. Karliah was once more granted the privilege of the Nightingale for offering another sacrifice. The imperial battlemage also allowed themselves to slip into the armor of Nocturnal's champion. After the ritual was over, Karliah became the nightingale representative of shadows, which was quite appropriate to the guild leader with no real identity.

"Nocturnal would never agree to remove your curse." Karliah's voice was soft and gentle with pity as she addressed the guild leader. As Karliah placed the Nightingale hood over her head, she was not saying such things out of anger or spite, simply as truth.

"Weren't you listening?" The young thief placed the shadowy black cowl over their face, focused on pulling the intricate armor over their hands. There was a smile there from the imperial, even if the dark elf could not see it. "She just did."


	3. The Ultimate Heist

Chapter 3

"I am not a very good shot, I'm afraid." Grey Fox refused nightingale bow, as Karliah offered to the fellow nightingale within the safety of Riften's underground cistern.

"Who refuses a gift from Nocturnal herself?" Delvin blurted out incredulously, overhearing the private conversation. "Oh- right!"

The thieves started to laugh loudly and chatter at the expense of their guild leader, who was increasingly flustered staring down at the floor. Karliah sighed, "Very well, I will keep this. Now everyone stay focused on the task at hand. Remember that the Fox has assigned jobs for each of you."

Karliah stared as she was trying to restore order, the smaller nightingale stormed quickly pass her. "And where are you going?"

"To steal something." Grey Fox answered, glaring testily at the other thieves and slammed the wooden door.

"…Aye, go easy on the lad Mallory." Brynjolf suggested, breaking the awkward silence. "He's had it rough."

"He's had it rough? He's never going get a bounty on his head thanks to that convenient little curse, which is more than I can say for the rest of us. We are the ones that are really cursed. Our luck's run out, Brynjolf. Why's no one here giving it to him straight?"

"….Our affairs do not concern him." Karliah answered coldly, folding her arms.

"Right. But it does concern yours truly. Someone out there is piss drunk mad." Delvin grumbled. "Considering most us are being picked off, and nobody knows why."

"Everyone here knows exactly why, Mallory. It's Astrid and her friendly neighborhood homicidal maniacs coming to pay us a nightly visit."

"You take that back, Astrid's a fine lady! And rich…" Delvin added all too belatedly. "In character and personality. We have a lot of concerns but Dark Brotherhood ain't one of them, trust me."

Everyone looked at him skeptically.

* * *

The waters that ran through the quiet town were still as the canoes creaked on the water and the ghostlike footsteps of the invisible thief caused the planks to creak, separating the mist. Riften was already a desolate and miserable place. The thieves would only add to the suffering of the town. The cloaked visitor wandered down passed the graves, white fog surrounding her. There were no guards in sight, just the prey that had finished stealing and was scurrying home like a predictable rat to their mouse hole.

All the assassin had to do was wait around at the graveyard to introduce this miserable thieving scum to their death. How appropriate. Senra picked a grave for them, the bright ivory tomb that the thief kept eying. Not that she could see her opponent's eyes with that black unsightly cowl. She did not need to see her opponent's expression or hear her opponent's voice to be enraged. After all, it was very much an affront to her religion that her opponent still took breath.

Grey Fox stopped when an unrecognizable black cloaked person was waiting at the grave yard. They seemed old and completely worn out, and entirely nonthreatening. Perhaps they were just another pilgrim or someone at a late funeral. Except that their eyes were closed and they were whispering a dark spell.

"An ambush?" The Grey Fox froze, realizing it must have been the other thieves. It was rather stupid to give them all of the plans in retrospect as no longer needed, the other thieves must have put a hit on their guild leader. Shaking in fear, Grey Fox quickly turned invisible.

Senra still had her eyes closed but smiled. She could hear the spell of the thief being cast. There were rumors her target was adept at the illusion school, an imperial battlemage. That was barely a challenge for a necromancer. Senra immediately brought up the dead in the graveyard, six zombies burst out from the leafy ground. The nightingale was not allowing themselves to be caught by the grasping bony hands. The skeletons were all archers, summoning bows in blue fire that fired their arrows wildly in all directions They did not expect that fox was in the middle of the circle, swiping at all of them with an invisible blade and then vanishing again. Nord farmers male and female started to resurrect, all getting sliced with a long blade as soon as they were summoned.

Senra leaned against the wall as her zombies did the work. Her opponent was ridiculously fast. She was expecting to give some drunken petty thug the scare of his life, as were most of her hits these days. As a result she was completely out of practice. She was not expecting it to go on this long.

Senra stopped summoning all her thralls immediately, regaining her magicka to full. Grey Fox's magicka was all but reduced with the nearly constant recasting of invisibility. "It's pointless. I could see your life fading." She summoned a ghostly bound dagger.

Grey fox was realizing too late the reason that all the plants were dead around the assassin. There was some kind of enchantment to cause poison around her, and the coughing and choking was noisy enough to be picked up. All the cloaked assassin did was reach out, and she felt her knife touch the invisible steel.

Senra was overjoyed that she would be able to see the opponent's blood. The sacrifice to her gods had made this worth it. Yet, somehow it wasn't enough. She tilted the glowing blue dagger that was the only light in the pitch black darkness. It was so foggy that even the moon light was obscured.

"I want to see the life leave your eyes." She whispered in the others ear. "I want to see your face, before I kill you."

She unveiled the cowl, lifting it up, icy hands brushing across the black hair and over the pale face. Senra's quite evil smirk twisted into a bitter snarl, as she gazed long at the face behind the mask staring back at her in horror.

"Where did he go?!"The assassin hissed, clenching the cowl in her fisted hands. In the place of Grey Fox, there was a small, frightened imperial girl with wide bright brown eyes and short choppy black hair around her face. Her expression was one of horror and she was breathing very heavily, leaning on her sword, regenerating her magicka. Her jaw dropped as the cowl was completely snatched away from her, messing up her hair even more. The assassin was still looking back and forward for Grey Fox.

"That miserable wretch will not escape his fate, this I vow. Who are you?"Senra glared back at the innocent girl, who let out a long breath of relief. Sometimes the curse of the cowl came in handy, and she often forgot this.

"J- Java." Grey fox stammered her old name, having been masked so long she nearly forgot it.

"Fear not, my little sister." Senra took the girls hands in her own cold pale one, feeling a rushing pulse. Senra looked back at her with sharp golden eyes. Under the torn, ratty cowl, fangs gleamed behind lips in hunger. Java gaped but said nothing. "It is not your time to join the Dread Father…Yet."


End file.
